Monday, March 14, 2011

Nanner Puddin'

Wow.  Two weeks.  I apologize for not posting (since that is one of my pet peeves :) ) as I am trying to figure out where the past two weeks have gone.  Where have I been?  The honest truth is. . .I've been home - in my normal place.  Josh left for three days last week to go to a convention.  Other than that, my life has been relatively normal, except maybe at work.  Work has been a little busy as of late.  That's okay - just another hoop to jump through.

So, via a friendly reminder from a follower on Facebook, here I am to tell you about my most recent creation at Jomel's Creamery - Banana Pudding ice cream.  I am not a huge fan of banana pudding.  I may eat it, but it is not something that I would ever crave.  Josh, on the other hand, loves it.  This past Friday at work, the Student Resource Officer was talking about how when he lived in Texas, they had the best Banana Pudding ice cream. The wheels in my brain began turning as I began thinking of it.  Josh had really wanted homemade ice cream recently - although I'd yet to make it - and he LOVES banana pudding.  I'd never heard of Banana Pudding ice cream.  So, I googled it and found a recipe from a rather reputable southern magazine.

That very afternoon, I went home and put my ice cream freezer in my deep freezer outside.  I then finished the housekeeping that I had planned since Josh was coming home that night.  On Saturday, I began the base for ice cream (the down-side to homemade ice cream is that one must freeze the freezer for a day, as well as refrigerate the base for a day).  While once again, I forgot to take pictures of the base-making.  Oops.  Although that process was rather uneventful as far as ice cream making goes, let me comment on the recipe.


3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 medium-size ripe bananas, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup coarsely crumbled vanilla wafers, plus more for sprinkling on top

1.  Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a large heavy saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk and cream. Cook
     over medium heat, stirring constantly, 10-12 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat.

2.  Whisk egg yolk until slightly thickened. Gradually whisk about 1 cup hot cream mixture into yolk. Add 
     yolk mixture to remaining cream mixture, whisking constantly. Whisk in vanilla extract. Cool 1 hour, 
     stirring occasionally.

3.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°. Combine bananas, brown sugar, and butter in a 2-qt. baking dish. 
     Bake 20 minutes or until browned and softened, stirring after 10 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes.

4.  Coarsely mash banana mixture; stir into cooled cream mixture. Place plastic wrap directly on cream 
     mixture, and chill 8 to 24 hours.

5.  Pour mixture into freezer container of a 1 1/2-qt. electric ice-cream maker, and freeze according to 
     manufacturer’s instructions. 

6.  Before transferring ice cream to an airtight container for further freezing, stir in vanilla wafers. Sprinkle 
     more crushed wafers over top before serving.

When I first read this recipe, I recognized that step one is your basic method for making a pudding.  Yum.  The second step is your basic method for ice cream.  Yum yum.  The third step is your basic method for caramel.  Yum yum yum.  

I believe this is the first time in my life when I had used mise en place.  I was so proud of myself!  It did make the process of making an ice cream base a lot easier since one must constantly stir the heating milk, and have the egg yolk on stand-by.  In addition, it would have made a beautiful picture.  Oh, well.

The picture parade is here!

1.  Here is the ice cream after I first put it in the mixer.  Notice the ice cream seemingly only half fills the freezer.


2.  Notice that the ice cream has more volume now that it is finished freezing.


3.   My final mise en place.  From left to right:  vanilla wafer crumbles, ice cream tub, finished ice cream


4.  Layers of ice cream and vanilla wafers


5.  Maybe a smaller ice cream tub would have been beneficial. :)


6.  Yes. . .I still lick the spatula when I am done. . . :)


7.  Finished product!



The final result was Josh raving about how wonderful it was.  He said it was better than any that he had tasted from the store.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

2 comments:

Norma said...

Way to go, Melodie!!

Erika said...

I will definitely be making this!